High growth US focused equity portfolio with low costs and a small gold stabiliser

Report created on Apr 22, 2026

Risk profile

  • Secure
    Speculative

The risk profile, derived from past market volatility, reflects the level of risk the portfolio is exposed to. This assessment helps align your investments with your financial goals and comfort with market fluctuations.

Diversification profile

  • Focused
    Diversified

The diversification assessment evaluates the spread of investments across asset classes, regions, and sectors. This ensures a balanced mix, reducing risk and maximizing returns by not concentrating in any single area.

Positions

This portfolio is very straightforward: about 90% in global equities via two index ETFs and 10% in physical gold. The core is a large allocation to a US large‑cap index, with a smaller satellite position in a wider global equity fund and a modest holding in gold. This kind of “core plus satellite” layout is easy to understand and monitor. Most of the movement in value will come from shares rather than gold, because equities tend to be more volatile and higher‑returning over time. Structurally, this is a growth‑oriented mix with a small diversifier on the side, rather than a balanced stock‑bond blend.

Growth Info

From mid‑2019 to April 2026, £1,000 in this portfolio grew to about £5,132, a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 27.44%. CAGR is like average speed on a road trip, smoothing out bumps along the way. Over the same period, both a US market index and a global market index grew much more slowly, in the low‑teens per year. The portfolio’s worst drop, or max drawdown, was about −22%, actually smaller than the benchmarks’ roughly −25% falls. This combination of much higher long‑term growth with slightly shallower worst falls is an unusually strong historical pattern, but it reflects a very favourable recent period for its holdings.

Projection Info

The Monte Carlo projection looks forward 15 years by taking past return and volatility patterns and simulating 1,000 different possible paths. Think of it as rolling the dice many times using history as a guide, not a promise. The median outcome turns £1,000 into about £2,655, with a wide “middle band” roughly between £1,792 and £3,860. Extreme scenarios range from nearly flat to very strong growth. The average simulated annual return is 7.65%. These projections highlight both the potential for meaningful growth and the reality that results can vary a lot. They are estimates, and real markets can behave differently from any model.

Asset classes Info

  • Stocks
    90%
  • Other
    10%

Asset class‑wise, this is 90% in stocks and 10% in “other,” which here is physical gold. That makes it an equity‑dominated portfolio, with only a small allocation to a non‑equity diversifier. Equities are the main engine of long‑term growth but also the main source of ups and downs. Gold tends to behave differently from shares in many environments, sometimes holding its value when stocks fall, though not always. Compared to a traditional mix that might include bonds, this portfolio leans more heavily on shares for both risk and return. The modest gold slice softens things a bit but doesn’t fundamentally change the growth‑heavy profile.

Sectors Info

  • Technology
    28%
  • Financials
    12%
  • Telecommunications
    9%
  • Consumer Discretionary
    9%
  • Health Care
    9%
  • Industrials
    8%
  • Consumer Staples
    5%
  • Energy
    3%
  • Utilities
    2%
  • Basic Materials
    2%
  • Real Estate
    2%

This breakdown covers the equity portion of your portfolio only.

Sector exposure is clearly tilted toward technology at 28%, with financials next at 12% and a broad spread across consumer, healthcare, industrials and smaller slices elsewhere. This looks broadly similar to many global equity indices today, where tech has grown to a large share of the market, but here it is slightly more pronounced because of the big US index holding. Sector tilts matter because different industries react differently to interest rates, regulation, and economic cycles. A tech‑heavy mix can benefit strongly when innovation‑driven companies are in favour but may see sharper swings when growth expectations or borrowing costs shift.

Regions Info

  • North America
    82%
  • Europe Developed
    3%
  • Japan
    1%
  • Asia Developed
    1%
  • Asia Emerging
    1%

This breakdown covers the equity portion of your portfolio only.

Geographically, the portfolio is highly concentrated in North America at about 82%, with only modest allocations to Europe, Japan and other regions. That is a stronger US tilt than a fully global index, which usually has a bit over half in the US. This has been a tailwind in recent years, as US markets and mega‑cap companies have outpaced many other regions. Geographic concentration means results are closely tied to one economy, one policy set, and largely one currency. While that has helped historically, it also means the portfolio’s fortunes are heavily linked to how the US market performs relative to the rest of the world.

Market capitalization Info

  • Mega-cap
    42%
  • Large-cap
    31%
  • Mid-cap
    16%
  • No data
    10%
  • Small-cap
    1%

This breakdown covers the equity portion of your portfolio only.

By market capitalization, the portfolio is dominated by mega‑caps (42%) and large‑caps (31%), with smaller slices in mid‑caps and very little in small‑caps. Market cap is simply the total value of a company’s shares; mega‑caps are the global giants. Large companies tend to be more stable and more widely researched than smaller ones, which can make returns somewhat smoother but often less explosive. This pattern of size exposure is very close to broad global indices, which are also top‑heavy in mega‑caps. It means the portfolio is strongly aligned with the existing market structure, rather than making big bets on smaller, more niche companies.

True holdings Info

  • NVIDIA Corporation
    5.98%
    Part of fund(s):
    • Vanguard FTSE All-World UCITS ETF USD Accumulation
    • Vanguard S&P 500 UCITS Acc
  • Apple Inc
    5.44%
    Part of fund(s):
    • Vanguard FTSE All-World UCITS ETF USD Accumulation
    • Vanguard S&P 500 UCITS Acc
  • Microsoft Corporation
    4.08%
    Part of fund(s):
    • Vanguard FTSE All-World UCITS ETF USD Accumulation
    • Vanguard S&P 500 UCITS Acc
  • Amazon.com Inc
    2.85%
    Part of fund(s):
    • Vanguard FTSE All-World UCITS ETF USD Accumulation
    • Vanguard S&P 500 UCITS Acc
  • Alphabet Inc Class A
    2.53%
    Part of fund(s):
    • Vanguard FTSE All-World UCITS ETF USD Accumulation
    • Vanguard S&P 500 UCITS Acc
  • Broadcom Inc
    2.10%
    Part of fund(s):
    • Vanguard FTSE All-World UCITS ETF USD Accumulation
    • Vanguard S&P 500 UCITS Acc
  • Alphabet Inc Class C
    2.03%
    Part of fund(s):
    • Vanguard FTSE All-World UCITS ETF USD Accumulation
    • Vanguard S&P 500 UCITS Acc
  • Meta Platforms Inc.
    1.97%
    Part of fund(s):
    • Vanguard FTSE All-World UCITS ETF USD Accumulation
    • Vanguard S&P 500 UCITS Acc
  • Tesla Inc
    1.58%
    Part of fund(s):
    • LS 1x Tesla Tracker ETP Securities GBP
    • Vanguard FTSE All-World UCITS ETF USD Accumulation
    • Vanguard S&P 500 UCITS Acc
  • Berkshire Hathaway Inc
    1.11%
    Part of fund(s):
    • Vanguard S&P 500 UCITS Acc
  • Top 10 total 29.67%

This breakdown covers the equity portion of your portfolio only.

Looking through the ETFs’ top holdings, several big names appear multiple times, such as NVIDIA, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet, and Meta. For instance, NVIDIA alone adds up to about 6% of the portfolio within the top‑10 coverage. This overlap shows how index funds can create hidden concentration in the same few large companies. Because only the top‑10 positions are used for each ETF, true overlap is likely somewhat higher. When the same giants sit in more than one fund, their impact on the portfolio’s ups and downs is larger than any single ETF weight might suggest, especially during big moves in these stocks.

Risk contribution Info

  • Vanguard S&P 500 UCITS Acc
    Weight: 70.00%
    94.6%
  • Vanguard FTSE All-World UCITS ETF USD Accumulation
    Weight: 20.00%
    5.1%
  • iShares Physical Gold ETC
    Weight: 10.00%
    0.3%

Risk contribution shows how much each holding drives the portfolio’s overall swings, which can differ from its simple weight. Here, the S&P 500 ETF is 70% of the portfolio but contributes about 95% of total risk, so its risk/weight ratio of 1.35 is high. The global equity ETF at 20% weight contributes only about 5% of risk, and gold at 10% barely moves the needle. This means the portfolio’s behaviour is overwhelmingly defined by the S&P 500 fund. A single core position effectively sets the tone for volatility and performance, while the other holdings play more of a supporting role than their weights suggest.

Risk vs. return

This chart shows the Efficient Frontier, calculated using your current assets with different allocation combinations. It highlights the best balance between risk and return based on historical data. "Efficient" portfolios maximize returns for a given risk or minimize risk for a given return. Portfolios below the curve are less efficient. This is informational and not a recommendation to buy or sell any assets.

Click on the colored dots to explore allocations.

The risk vs. return chart compares the current mix with an “efficient frontier” built only from these three holdings. The Sharpe ratio, which measures return per unit of risk above a risk‑free rate, is 0.86 for the current portfolio. The maximum‑Sharpe combination of the same ingredients scores 1.42, with much lower volatility and still high expected returns. The minimum‑variance mix has even less risk and a solid Sharpe of 1.27. Because the current allocation sits about 1.6 percentage points below the frontier at its risk level, the data suggests that simply reweighting these existing holdings could, in theory, improve the balance between risk and reward.

Ongoing product costs Info

  • iShares Physical Gold ETC 0.25%
  • Vanguard S&P 500 UCITS Acc 0.07%
  • Vanguard FTSE All-World UCITS ETF USD Accumulation 0.19%
  • Weighted costs total (per year) 0.11%

The total ongoing fund cost, or TER, across the holdings is very low at about 0.11% per year. TER (Total Expense Ratio) is the annual fee charged by a fund, taken out before returns are reported, a bit like a small service charge. The core S&P 500 ETF is particularly cheap at 0.07%, the global equity fund is still inexpensive at 0.19%, and the gold ETC sits at 0.25%. These are all in a competitive low‑cost range. Over many years, keeping costs this lean can meaningfully support net performance, because less return is being sacrificed to fees. The cost structure here is a clear strength.

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